Some Sunny Day
by Waiwa Ayas
Summary: Four months after Weirdmageddon, life in Gravity Falls goes on as usual. Until Bill Cipher reappears in the Mystery Shack, trapped inside a new form he is less than pleased with. With both sets of Pines twins absent, it's up to Wendy, Soos, Pacifica, and the other townsfolk to wrangle the irate dream demon before he destroys the town again!
1. A Cosmic Joke

**Wow, it's been five years since I posted anything on this account! I'm so OLD. :P**

**Anyway, I'm just messing around with a potential idea for a new story, since I LOVE Gravity Falls and want to explore it more with some of the secondary characters from the original show. Let me know if you think I should keep going! Reviews float my boat! **

**Thank you, and I hope you enjoy! :)**

Wendy was not expecting a call from Soos on her day off, so she was surprised when her cell phone lit up with his name on the screen. She had just finished pulling on some clean clothes after a shower. Figuring he wanted to know where she had left the cleaning supplies at the shack, she picked up the phone and frowned at the jumble of indistinguishable noises coming over the receiver. Probably a butt dial, then. Just to be sure, she said, "Soos? You there?" and the noises suddenly became louder. It sounded like someone was pulling down the shelves in a fully loaded cupboard.

"Wendy? Wendy, can you hear me?" He was practically shouting, but it was his tone that got her attention. Soos was always so laid back and cheerful, but now his voice was strained and she could hear him breathing hard over the line.

She dropped her hairbrush on the bed. "Soos, what's going on? Are you okay? Soos!"

A mighty crash sounded over the receiver, making her jump as a high-pitched screech followed it. "Soos!" she yelled, grabbing her coat and slamming open her bedroom door. "Answer me, man!"

"I'm okay!" he shouted back, although his labored breathing belied this statement. "Hey, Wendy, could you come over, like, asap? I don't know how to explain it but we're sort of having an emergency over here and – oh dude, dude stop-!"

"I'm on my way!" Wendy hollered seconds before the line went dead. Cursing, she tripped down her stairs and charged out her front door, grabbing her bicycle at the end of the driveway. She mounted it at a run and started pedaling furiously, strands of wet hair whipping in her eyes. What could have happened at the Mystery Shack to cause Soos to sound so panicked? Maybe some sort of paranormal creature had broken in? Maybe one of Ford's old lab experiments had exploded? Maybe the shape-shifter was back?

Praying that it wasn't the last thing, Wendy tore down the dirt road, her skin prickling in the frigid air. She flung her bicycle aside as she rounded the bend and ran up the front steps of the shack. The building looked intact from the outside, but she could hear loud crashes and clatters coming from behind the door. She charged inside and immediately came face-to-face with Soos, who was wrestling with a stranger in the front hallway. Wendy caught a glimpse of pale skin and vivid bright eyes before she threw herself at the intruder and tackled him to the floor. "Get out of our shack, asshole!"

The stranger struggled beneath her, but he couldn't seem to coordinate his body well enough to throw her off. He was tall and ramrod-thin, wearing loose black pants, a golden shirt, and no shoes. There was something wrong with him, for sure. He was gasping like a drowning man, and as Wendy sought to hold him still she realized that his entire body was trembling like an aspen leaf.

"Wendy, be careful! Don't get too close to him," Soos intervened, lifting her up by the straps of her tank top. "This dude's tweaked out on something, I can tell. Dunno what he'll do."

Wendy regained her footing and stared down at the young man sprawled on the floor. He made no attempt to get up, instead wrapping his arms around himself and wheezing harder. "Where the hell did this guy come from?!"

"I don't know." Soos shrugged his meaty shoulders helplessly. "I was upstairs cleaning the windows and I heard a sound like something big hitting the house. I looked all around and I couldn't find any damage, but when I came back downstairs this dude was just, like, flailing around in the middle of the living room." Soos imitated waving his arms in jerky, epileptic motions. "Hasn't said a single word that makes sense. Knocked over the bookcase and, like, ten of the exhibits already."

Wendy stared at the scene before her in bewilderment. This guy seemed like a normal human, but – well, _normal_ would be going a bit far. A strung-out junkie would be more accurate. She bit her lip and patted the cell phone in her pocket. "Should we call the police?"

"I mean, we could, but do you think they'd be any help?" Wendy frowned and shook her head. Sheriff Blubbs and Deputy Durland were many things, but competent was not one of them. She still remembered the time they had left the keys in their police cruiser while doing some weird dress-up PSA, and she and the guys had taken the car for a joyride around town. Afterward, the cops had been too flustered to even remember to arrest them.

"No, you're right. We'll have to deal with this on our own." Wendy planted her hands on her hips, staring down at all the wreckage. "Maybe we should drive him to the hospital. They have secure detox wards where they bring tweakers down off their highs-"

The pale stranger moaned and arched his back, swaying himself into a sitting position. Wendy and Soos braced themselves for more unpredictable violence, but instead he let his head loll back, eyes darting rapidly around the room. _**"AXOLOTL, RESTORE MY FORM."**_ Wendy blinked and shared a deadpan look with Soos. That loud voice was surprisingly clear and had a strange timbre to it, but the words meant nothing to her. The young man got a wild look in his eyes as he repeated the strange chant with increasing desperation. His eyes flew all around the room as if waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he suddenly slammed his fists against the hardwood floor. "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?!"

"Okay dude, take it easy there." Soos stepped forward slowly and Wendy looked around for a weapon in case the stranger flipped out again. "I guess you do speak English after all, huh? Can you understand what I'm saying to you?"

The blonde man scooted backward and bared his teeth in a feral grimace. "GIMME SOME SPACE, QUESTION MARK! I'M HAVING A MOMENT HERE!" He flailed his legs around awkwardly, then grabbed hold of the armchair and tried to pull himself up. "HOW DO THESE DAMN FLESH STICKS EVEN WORK?!"

Wendy's hand closed around Stan's old backscratcher as a terrible feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Who referred to legs as 'flesh sticks'? And why would he call Soos 'Question Mark'? There was only one….demon, creature, entity, whatever, whom she'd ever heard do both of those things. And the voice. The eerie pitch, the volume, the almost monotone delivery….as if the speaker hadn't entirely figured out how to copy human language. It washed over her with a sickening familiarity.

She took a step toward the blonde man, who had managed to haul himself to his knees but couldn't seem to coordinate his legs enough to stand. Her voice sounded strangely calm in her ringing ears. "What's your name?"

"Wendy…." Soos tried to pull her back, but she shrugged him off and continued advancing on the stranger, holding the backscratcher out in front of her.

"Tell me your name right now!"

With a sudden heave, he pushed himself up to his full height and stood there for a moment, wobbling like a tinkertoy but still taller than her. In that moment, his eyes caught the light of a nearby lamp and Wendy could see their yellowish tint, with deep black slits of pupils staring down at her. It was _him._ She knew it.

"Soos, get back!" she screamed, brandishing the backscratcher like a sword. _"IT'S BILL!"_ She brought it crashing down on his head with all her might. He fell like a stone and sprawled gracelessly on the floor. She darted around his legs and hit him again, then again, surprised by the meaty thud that meant her weapon was connecting with something solid. So this wasn't one of his illusions. But where had he gotten this body from? He must be possessing it – but how was that even possible after Stan and Ford erased him with the memory gun?

The man's shoulders twitched with each strike as he made feeble attempts to pull himself across the floor. Wendy stopped, suddenly aware that she might be doing more damage to the body's owner than to Bill himself. Soos was standing stock still, his mouth hanging open. It took him a moment to recover. "Wh – Bill? The scary triangle guy?" It can't be him. Stan said he was gone."

"It's him, Soos. The eyes. The voice! Nobody else could even come close to that. We've got to do something, we've got to contact Stan and Ford. Tell them it's an emergency –!"

"Uuuuuggghh…." The blonde man rolled over and blinked up at them dazedly. "ALL RIGHT, AXOLOTL, I GET IT! REAL FUNNY JOKE! HA HA, I'M LAUGHING MY GUTS OUT!" Wendy and Soos stared as the yellow eyes rolled around the room, searching for something they couldn't see. "NOW FIX THIS! GET ME OUT OF THIS MEATSACK AND BACK TO MY OLD FORM! I DIDN'T INVOKE YOU TO RETURN ME AS A THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLESH BAG!"

Silence followed this outburst while the man (Bill?) continued gasping for breath and twitching. Wendy looked around for something they could use to restrain him. She was pretty sure his blue flames could burn through anything, but they had to at least try to stop him from sending the town into pandemonium again. "Soos, we can't let him get away!"

"Not sure the dude can get away," Soos mused, staring skeptically down at him. "Doesn't seem like he knows how to walk."

"YOU DARE QUESTION MY POWERS, YOU INSIGNIFICANT MORTAL!?" Bill shouted, kicking his legs in the air in a manner not unlike a child having a tantrum. "I KNOW _EVERYTHING!_"

"It could be a trick. Who knows what he might do." Wendy glanced carefully around the shack, ignoring the writhing demon on the floor. "Let's lock him in your old break room while we call Stan and Ford."

Soos looked apprehensive. "I don't think we can call them, Wendy. Those guys are always traveling in some crazy place with no cell reception. Once in a while they call me…."

"We have to try! This is super serious!" Wendy insisted, grabbing hold of one of Bill's flailing legs. "C'mon, help me drag him to the closet."

"LET GO OF ME! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS, FOOLISH HUMANS!" Bill clawed at the wooden floor as Soos grabbed his other leg and together they heaved him across the room. "AXOLOTL, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! GET ME OUT OF THIS BODY! I DON'T WANT THIS! I DON'T LIKE HOW IT FEELS!"

Reaching the former break room, Wendy and Soos hoisted the uncooperative demon and maneuvered him into the tiny space. She caught a glimpse of his yellow eyes widening just before she slammed the door. "Soos, go get the key! I'll hold it shut."

The large man lumbered off down the hallway as Wendy jammed her back against the door, feeling a series of heavy bangs jolt her body. "WHAT IS THIS? YOU FLESH BAGS THINK A DOOR WILL HOLD ME? I'M A BEING OF PURE ENERGY WITH NO WEAKNESS!"

"We're not letting you out to cause more chaos!" she shouted back, hoping she sounded more in control than she felt. "You're not even supposed to exist anymore!"

"WHEN I RETURN TO MY TRUE FORM I WILL ENVELOPE THIS WHOLE TOWN IN A GIANT BUBBLE OF MADNESS! YOU'LL SPEND THE REST OF YOUR DAYS SCREAMING FOR MERCY!" More loud, unsteady bangs and then a harsh thump as if the demon had fallen to the floor. "WHY IS EVERYTHING SO HEAVY!?"

Soos hurried back with the key and jammed it in the lock. His face was pale and he was sweating profusely. Wendy waited until she heard the bolt slide into place before she took a careful step away from the door. Confused bumps and scraping sounds emanated from behind it, accompanied by that oddly labored breathing. "HEY! I CAN'T SEE! LET – ME – OUT!" Each word was punctuated with a thud and a painful-sounding groan.

As the racket continued, Wendy and Soos glanced at each other with wide eyes. Wendy bit her lip hard, wishing she had her trusty axe. This was worse than an explosion. Worse than the shape-shifter coming back. Worse than every other paranormal creature they had ever met combined. This was Bill Cipher, instigator of Weirdmageddon and powerful dream demon. And they didn't have anything that could stop him if he started up his old tricks again. The journals were gone. The memory gun was broken. Dipper and Mabel were back in California, and Stan and Ford were sailing somewhere beyond the boundaries of civilization. It was just her, Soos, and a dented backscratcher for protection. They were so screwed.

She pulled the bandanna tighter around her forehead and stared down the silent halls of the shack. "Soos, guard the door. I'll grab the phone."

As Wendy hurried toward the gift shop, her shoulders tensed as a harsh, animal-sounding wail drifted from the closet. It was following by a slamming noise and a high-pitched, eerie shriek. _"WHY IS THIS HAPPENING!?"_ She broke into a run, thinking that she would definitely like to ask the universe the same question.


	2. Meatsack

**Hey guys! Thanks for the follows, faves, and reviews! I appreciate them, so I've written another chapter just for you!**

_This is the Pines family residence. We are currently on vacation. Please leave your name and a brief message and we'll return your call when we get home. Have a nice day!_

Wendy breathed deeply into the receiver, waiting for the telltale beep. _On vacation where?!_ She wanted to shout into the telephone. _When will you be back?! This is an emergency!_ But she couldn't say too much, knowing that Dipper and Mabel's parents would also hear her message when they returned home and listened to their answering machine. If only the twins had their own cell phones.

_Beep._

"Hey Dipper, Mabel, it's me, uh, Wendy…." She scrunched the phone cord between her fingers. Who still used landlines in this day and age, anyway? "Could you call me, like, as soon as you get back? There's something going on that I need to talk to you about. You know….Gravity Falls stuff. You can reach me at the shack, or my cell phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thanks, and please call soon."

She hung up, hoping the message was vague enough that their parents wouldn't question it. Then she tried the number Stan and Ford had left, but wasn't surprised when a robotic voice informed her that her party was out of range. The elder Pines twins were accessible via cell phone, but only when they were within service range, which according to Soos was not very often. They hadn't even set up their voice mailbox.

Wendy stood in the middle of the gift shop listening to the dial tone, feeling like her brain was also on hold. What were they supposed to do now? They had an angry demon locked in the closet and the people who had beaten him last time were more than 700 miles away and unresponsive. They couldn't count on help from the outside, at least not right now. She and Soos would have to figure this out by themselves, or probably die trying.

She returned to the hallway to tell Soos the bad news. The banging had stopped, and now the shack was filled with an eerie silence that set her on edge. "I can't reach any of them. Dipper and Mabel are on vacation with their parents, and Stan and Ford are out of signal range."

Soos pulled at the front of his shirt nervously. "Oh man, oh man, that's bad. I knew we probably couldn't get through to Stan and Ford, but I thought at least the kids might have some ideas…."

"I don't know when they'll be back. I left a message, but until they return it…." Wendy scowled at the faded closet door. "We'll have to deal with this ourselves."

"But - but how?" Soos stammered. "Isn't Bill, like, pretty much invincible?"

"He was," Wendy mused, tapping her chin. "But he's in a human body now. Maybe that limits what he can do. When he possessed Dipper's body, he became susceptible to all the physical weaknesses of being human. Remember the end of that puppet show, when they were fighting and Mabel beat him?"

Soos nodded. "So you think we might be able to overpower him?"

"I think so," Wendy smacked her fist into her opposite palm, eyeing the silent door. "When I tackled him before, he was solid. We get him down and then we make him talk. Maybe we can find out something that'll help us get rid of him."

"We're gonna need some supplies."

"I know." Wendy leaned against the door. "You go grab some stuff we can use to fight him. I'll make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

Soos nodded gravely and trundled off. Wendy waited in the silence for a moment, then tentatively pressed her ear against the door. She could hear some sort of noise, a muttering so low the words were indistinguishable. What was he doing in there, some sort of demon spell? That didn't bode well for them. Wendy could kick monster ass all day, but when things started to get all mystical and dimension-y, she often found herself out of her element. She couldn't punch a portal.

"I got the stuff!" Wendy jumped as Soos appeared behind her, holding an armful of various materials left over from the time they had turned the Mystery Shack into a giant fighting robot. Not a half-bad plan, in the end. Too bad they couldn't do it again. She sifted through the pile, picking out Stan's old brass knuckles, a broken broom handle, and a length of rope.

"We're gonna have to tie his hands so he can't do any summoning seals or whatever demons do." Wendy turned and stared at Soos, who was sporting his FCLORP armor and helmet. "Soos, you know that stuff's made out of cardboard, right?"

"Better cardboard than nothing! I've worn this gear to many a battle," the large man declared confidently, causing Wendy to smile and sigh at the same time.

"On my mark I'll open the door. Go for his arms and don't let him get up. Once we tie his hands we can pull him into the living room and get a better look at him."

"All right." Soos braced himself as Wendy put her hand on the knob. "To battle!"

Wendy flung the door open with a deafening bang as she and Soos charged into the closet. She briefly glimpsed the young man lying on the floor with his arms curled over his face before Soos gave a mighty war cry and crashed down on top of him. "WHAT – HEY! GET OFF, YOU STUPID MEATSACK! I'LL FEED YOU TO YOUR WORST NIGHTMARES!" Wendy pounced on Bill as Soos pinned him to the floor. She dragged his hands away from his face, slipping his thin wrists into one of the sailor's knots her survivalist father had taught her. Bill squirmed and clawed at her neck, his yellow eyes seeming to glow in the sudden light. Even though he was in a human body, she still expected him to have super strength or laser eyes or something that could blast her across the room. She tensed with every second, but the impact never came. Wendy yanked hard on the rope, causing Bill's arms to snap out in front of him as he gasped for breath. "G – GET THIS THING OFF ME! I WON'T FORGET THIS, MORTAL!"

"I've got him, Soos! Get him up and help me drag him to the living room."

Soos stood, puffing deeply as he hauled the demon upright and Wendy jerked him forward. Bill lasted two seconds on his feet before he collapsed like a rag doll. The fall didn't seem to deter his voice. "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, HEY! WATCH IT, RED, YOU'RE GONNA PULL MY DAMN FLESH STICKS OFF! LET GO! _**AXOLOTL, YOU SON OF A – **_"

Wendy added more pressure to the rope, making sure he couldn't hurt Soos as the large man helped maneuver the dream demon down the hallway. Finally they made it to the living room, a chaos of scattered and upended furniture. Bill slumped to the ground and squeezed his eyes shut, beginning to mutter feverishly again. "I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't feel good. Make it stop."

"Bill! Hey Bill, look at me!" Wendy nudged him with the broom handle.

He groaned and glared up at her. "CAN'T YOU MEATSACKS LEAVE ME ALONE!? I AM HAVING A CRISIS AT A LEVEL WHICH YOUR PRIMITIVE BRAINS COULDN'T POSSIBLY COMPREHEND!"

"Yeah, I think we all know the meaning of a _crisis_ by now," Wendy said darkly, curling her fingers around Stan's brass knuckles. "You taught us that pretty well when you took over our town."

"_YOUR_ TOWN!? YOUR – " Bill jerked forward onto his knees, sneering indignantly. "LISTEN UP, RED! THIS NOWHERE TOWN IS AN INFINITISIMAL POINT IN AN ENDLESS COSMOS AND YOUR LIVES ARE JUST DUST COLLECTING ON ITS SURFACE! NOTHING IS YOURS, NOT ONE SINGLE THING! I WOULD HAVE MADE THIS DIMENSION AN ETERNAL PARTY WITH NO MEANING TO RUIN IT! BUT NOOOOO, YOU FLESH BAGS HAD TO GO AND BE _CLEVER_ WITH YOUR STUPID MEMORY GUN AND – "

"Shut up and tell us why you're here!" Wendy barked, yanking on the rope and throwing him off balance. "Why did you come back to Gravity Falls after we destroyed you?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Bill snarled before seeming to realize what he'd said. His face paled and he opened and closed his mouth several times. "I don't….I don't….know? I don't….know. I was just…. I was burning, and then I was….here. I don't…."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Wendy questioned, thinking that this conversation was not at all going the way she'd expected. To her left she spotted Soos with a clipboard and pen, scribbling furiously with a look of intense concentration.

"Pain," Bill mused quietly. "Not the funny kind, just….pain. Couldn't get out. Nothing worked. Invoked the ancient power….the axolotl, and then…." He rocked back and forth on his knees, his eyes squeezed shut as if trying to simultaneously remember and forget. "I don't know."

"Okay, what is this….axolotl thing? How did you invoke it?"

"The axolotl is the axolotl." Bill said, looking at her as if she were dumb. "No other name can invoke it."

Wendy turned to Soos, who was still writing. "Is this making any sense to you?"

The large man shook his head. "Naw, dude, it all sounds like sci-fi mumbo jumbo to me. I'm just taking notes so when we finally get in touch with Ford we can pass this info on to him. He'll know what it means."

"Hey, where is Sixer, anyway? And Fez? Pine Tree? Shooting Star? Shouldn't they be yelling at me too?" Bill peered around the shack, tugging at the rope that bound his wrists.

"They're not here," Wendy told him curtly, deciding that he didn't need to know the details. "You're gonna be dealing with me and Soos 'til they get back. And you better not try _anything,_ or we'll kick your ass even worse than last time!"

Bill snorted. "YEAH, RIGHT! I HAD YOU PUNY HUMANS BEAT AND ONCE I GET MY TRUE FORM BACK I'LL MAKE IT PERMANENT!"

Wendy jumped, startled by the sudden volume of his voice. "Can you not shout? I'm five feet from you."

"DOESN'T MATTER TO ME, RED!" Bill leaned back against the rope and Wendy fought to keep his arms pulled taut. "NOW GET – THIS THING – OFF ME!"

"Not happening!" Wendy growled, glancing around the room for something she could attach the rope to. "You're not getting away until we figure out how to get rid of you for good!" Moving agilely, she tossed the rope over one of the ceiling beams and caught the other end. Pulling down on it forced Bill's hands above his head and away from their throats. He yelped as his body was dragged off the floor until he was dangling in a half-kneeling, half-standing position, struggling to get his legs under him.

"H-HEY! CUT THAT OUT! WHAT IS THIS, GRAVITY OR SOMETHING!? WHO THE HELL THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA!?"

Wendy handed the end of the rope to Soos. "Keep him hanging there, I'm gonna try to get a closer look at him." She inched forward as Bill twisted and arched his back, gasping raggedly. She could see two white rows of teeth behind his lips. Carefully, she wrapped her hands around his bicep and squeezed, feeling the straining muscles right where they should be. His skin was warm and flushed. She tapped his elbows and chin, feeling for bone. She lifted up his shirt and saw the bulge of ribs pressing against the flesh of his chest. Curiously enough, he had a belly button too, even though he had never been born. A perfectly crafted human body. But _why?_

Bill endured her examination reluctantly, squirming and complaining at the top of his voice. Eventually he seemed to tire and just hung there, panting thickly. Wendy was sure there was something wrong with the way he was breathing. Air seemed to rattle in his throat, causing pained spasms in his chest and shoulders. It seemed ironic that after all the impossible things he had pulled off with ease, in human form he didn't even know how to breathe properly. She instructed Soos to lower him back to his knees and then tied off the rope so he was stuck there with his arms hoisted above his head in what looked like a gesture of surrender.

Bill stared up at them with an expression that could almost be called pathetic. "Hey, c'mon, don't be like that! We can make a deal, right? I told you about the axolotl, so now you have to help me figure out how to find it. That's fair! I don't – want – this body – I don't – feel good –" His words devolved into gasping breaths as Wendy and Soos gazed at each other in wary bewilderment. Bill clearly still wanted to wreak havoc on their dimension, but right now he seemed to be powerless. It could be a trick, a ruse designed to get….something from them. But why would the dream demon go to all that trouble if he could just do whatever he wanted with a snap of his fingers? Maybe this axolotl thing really had returned Bill to this dimension confined to a human form, a sort of karmic retribution for all the chaos he'd been responsible for in the mortal realm. Was it possible? If so, what should they do with him now?

"We need to make a plan," she told Soos grimly as she pushed damp, messy strands of hair out of her eyes. "We're not the only ones who know about Bill. Weirdmageddon affected everyone, and it took all of us to fight him off. Until we figure out how to lose him permanently, we've gotta hold the fort down here. Keep the worst from happening."

"Sounds good, dude!" Soos agreed, adjusting his Mystery Shack cap and squaring his shoulders. "We can't let the Pines do all the heavy lifting. Let's do this!"

Bill gave a melodramatic groan and let his head roll back on his shoulders. _**"Axolotl, why are you doing this to me?!"**_


End file.
